Dongarld

Located on the western banks of Meer van de Sterren, or Lake of the Stars, this modestly sized city is home to Duke Tore, the King’s boyhood friend and most loyal subject. A harbor for the island city that houses the Blackrose Academy.

Located on the western banks of Meer van de Sterren, or Lake of the Stars, this modestly sized city is home to Duke Tore, the King’s boyhood friend and most loyal subject. This city has grown rapidly over the last few decades, with all sorts of tradesmen opening businesses and shops throughout the city. The fairly large Meer van de Sterren is home to a seemingly endless supply of fish and is large enough to support hundreds of fishing trawlers in its waters with little difficulty. Fishing is a main source of business and is a large staple in its exports. Its crops yield enough to also sell at the market or even transport to other cities as a source of income for the inclined. The main food source other than fish is cattle. Because of the lush lands surrounding the lake it has made for wonderful grazing and cattle seem to multiply rapidly in the gentle climate.

The cities navy is rather large for it being an inland city, but the ships are all small vessels able to get down the river under the three stone bridges at Shaedra with little difficulty. Most of these vessels are all coast huggers once out in the ocean so the tend to patrol the lake and river in the area. The city itself is sprawled out over the bank of the lake and river with no real design or purpose. The castle and military compound are fortified rather well however, and are the only dark smudge on a wonderful landscape. The castle juts out in the center of the original city with its high walls and ballista overlooking the city and waters below. The buildings that house the military are inside the castle walls and it is more like a large academy than a barracks. Being three stories tall and made of stone and brick it houses all of those in the military who are not married, as well as recruits and militia in times of war, it cuts a rather impressive appearance to any who have never seen it before.

Magic is well known in Dongarld, it is never frowned on as the castle walls and the building that houses the military were helped built by a few Conocha who have knowledge in Earth Magic to make the walls stronger. There is even a small academy in the city that houses at least 50 Conocha a year as well as students. It is also home to the largest area where the crystal required to create the magic staves of the Conocha can be found. In places throughout the surrounding countryside, small areas where these crystals grow can be found in relative abundance for anyone to harvest and use. The main crop of these crystals however grow by the lake and under its waters. Duke Tore, with the express persistence of the local Conocha, has put a tariff on the crystal that grows by the lake and under the water. In fear of having it harvested to quickly, everyone who goes to harvest it from the lake must register at the local academy and also pay a hefty fee to extract it, under the guidance of one of the local Conocha. They have put this in place to maintain control of its use and make sure it is not depleted. The fee also helps in building or buying what the academy needs, minus a small cut that the Duke gets for the tariff.

The city is a main outpost for watching the kingdoms eastern flank from the neighboring Gison, Derevo, and the human Kingdom of Rhomas. There have been few problems in the past few decades but rumors of the Kingdom of Rhomas stirring across the lake preparing for something is begining to circulate.

In 463A, in the Time of the Return of Magic, the city Dongarld was no more than an outpost by the water. A small group of Conocha traveled to the outpost with a few students to look for locations for their academy. What they found when they got there changed the Kingdom instantly. There were bodies scattered everywhere with carrion birds pecking relentlessly at the feast. The bodies of the humans who had built the outpost as well as numerous bodies of Sladiva and corrupted littered the ground staining the grass red with blood. Looking at the outpost a dark banner flee from its walls that sent fear into the older Conocha. A large group of Sladiva bearing a white bloody head on their standard had occupied the outpost as their own. Having had a brother at the outpost Ardus Caog, the leading member in the troupe became enraged and devised a plan to warn the King of this atrocity. They sent a student back by horse to the capital and set off to see what they could do until the King’s Army arrived in a few weeks time. The exact details of what happened next are lost in history, but it is known that many of the students and teachers died in the assault on the outpost. But when it was all over, every last one of the Sladiva were destroyed. Ardus Caog was killed in the relentless five day assault after battling the leader who was also an accomplished Conocha. Both men died horribly, but not before the reason behind the Sladiva occupying the outpost. They had found the crystals years before and had planned to build their new city here where they were going to use it as a staging ground in taking over the rest of the lands. It was stopped, and a hatred for the Sladiva hardened the hearts and souls of everyone in the kingdom. Ever since then, the crystals have been kept under watch and the academy is given what they require to build to protect the kingdom. Duke Tore is the direct descendant of Ardus Caog, his own children carry on the line the first hero of Dongarld.

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The PCs find a small green glass bottle, something can be seen writhing within the smoked glass. If the PCs open the bottle a repulsing form of life will pour forth and grow in size. A genderless beings of soft pliable purple flesh towers before the PCs, it has no detail, no distinguishing characteristics except for a narrow slit for a mouth that holds rows of inwardly curving teeth.